THE HOFVIJVER AS SEEN FROM THE BUITENHOF AT THE HAGUE
“View at The Hague” etching with aquatint published in 1814 in London by Robert Bowyer. Coloured by a later hand. Size (plate mark): 30,2 x 40 cm.
The scene is made after an etching by Simon Frisius and published by Hendrik Hondius. This publisher of books and prints, who had also been the drawing instructor of Dutch astronomer Constantijn Huygens Jr., lived from 1614 to 1640 in the house adjacent to the garden of the Gevangenpoort. The splendid view that Hondius must have had from the upper floor of his house is reflected in this etching.
The reason for creating the view may have been the completion of the new construction of the stadtholder’s quarter in 1621, which is prominently featured.
The architecture depicted in Frisius’s etching was often imitated in other prints, with changes in topography such as new buildings on the Korte Vijverberg and the construction of the Mauritshuis between 1633 and 1644.
With this aquatint, we are now two centuries ahead in time, and we see The Hague residents strolling in early nineteenth-century costumes.
Price: Euro 275,-
